Ashley Feinberg

We're already well aware of the damage malware can do to your machine, but apparently, guilty consciences don't fare all that well, either. At least not for one 21-year-old man who, after getting a fake pop-up demanding a fine for the child pornography on his computer, decided to take his laptop straight to the police—and was then promptly arrested on three counts of possession of child pornography.

Normally, ransomware—the type of malware our technologically impaired friend fell victim to—will lock the infected computer and display a fake, official-looking warning that the computer will remain locked until a certain amount of money is payed (to the scammer). This man, however, apparently didn't want to make sure he was ponying up for no reason, so he decided to go to the police and inquire about any potential outstanding warrants—with computer in tow. There were none out for his arrest, but as police are probably wont to do when someone nervously wanders in asking if he's been caught for child pornography, they decided to get themselves a search warrant.

On the actual computer, the police found both messages with and photos of underage girls. The owner was then charged with three counts of possession of child pornogrpahy, one count of using a communication device to solicit certain offenses involving children, and one count of indecent liberties with a minor. While he is currently being held without bond, other details in the case are fairly scant. So though he may, in fact, be a very dense, technologically illiterate pedophile who brought himself to justice, there's also the possibility that we're actually just dealing with an innocent man and a very unfortunate child-porn-spewing ransomware problem. [The Verge]